Citatap-style dumplings at souvenir café Rana Pirica

General goods and souvenir café Rana Pirica has been sharing Shiraoi’s treasures since it opened in October 2019.

Doubling as a general goods/souvenir store and café, it’s the perfect place to find works created by local artists from Shiraoi.

The owner is Yoshiho Sasaki.

Customers flock to Rana Pirica to enjoy dishes made from local Shiraoi ingredients!

The artists who created the souvenirs available at Rana Pirica often come here themselves to enjoy a meal.

aina

From the local ingredients to the souvenirs, this café truly follows the principle of local production for local consumption!

Rana Pirica

Pirica means “beautiful” or “cute” in Ainu language.
Rana is Latin for “frog”.
Put together, Rana Pirica means “cute frog”, but it is also the scientific name for a species of frog called the Hokkaido frog.

aina

Why did you pick “frog” for the name of your café?

Yoshiho

Because, I love frogs!

The frog-loving Yoshiho is an expert at finding special treasures unique to Shiraoi! I wonder what we will find!

Works by Shiraoi artists

When you enter the café, you’ll see a space to the right displaying pieces created by artists who work in Shiraoi.

Here we have pottery with Ainu patterns made by Rinka Kiln, which has a workshop in the Ishiyama area of Shiraoi.

These goods and clothing featuring embroidery of Ainu patterns were created by artists such as Sachiko Yoshikuni, NUITO (Hikaru Saito) and ekor ikor.

These key rings were carved by Shiraoi-based wood-carver Akira Kawamura.

These key rings were carved by Shiraoi-based wood-carver Akira Kawamura.

This masking tape with an Ainu pattern was created by Shiraoi company BLUE SALMON.

If you’re staying in Japan for a while, you can also purchase these products from the Rana Pirica website and have them shipped to an address in Japan!

Café space

The café space is to the left of the entrance.

aina

Wow! Everything about this Chinese tea is authentic, from the flavor to the pot and cups!

Yoshiho

That’s right! And our dishes are made from local ingredients.

Keema curry with Shiraoi venison

The venison keema curry and sticky barley comes with sides that change each day and vegetable soup!

Shiraoi beef and venison citatap-style three-color dumpling set meal

The dumpling wrappers come in three colors―red (tomato), green (green juice and celery) and yellow (curry powder and lotus root).

Citatap is the Ainu word for minced fish or meat.

aina

Citatap dumplings are a must for anyone who loves the manga Golden Kamuy!

Yoshiho

You can even get them as take-out and enjoy them at home.

Aina’s recommendations

Embroidery workshops

土曜に白老のカフェで刺繍体験！NUITO手芸部

Embroidery workshops are held on Saturday mornings in the café space.

The instructor is Shiraoi local Hikaru Saito.

Click here to learn more about the embroidery workshops.

Events and exhibitions

Rana Pirica exhibits works by Shiraoi artists.

The café also holds exhibitions on Ainu “old cloth pictures” (Ainu folk tales embroidered on cloth) and Ainu embroidery pieces.